Headlines Done Right

Nice work from the copy desks at the New York Times and the Washington Post tonight: these are nice, simple headlines that explain exactly what happened to the Democratic jobs proposal in the Senate a few hours ago. In the Times piece, the second paragraph explained that "Democrats needed 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster." In the Post piece, the sixth paragraph provided the background: "Under the rules of the Senate, 60 votes were needed to continue toward action on the bill."

This is clean and accurate. The headlines make it clear that Republicans blocked the bill, and the text makes it clear that you need 60 votes to move forward with legislation in the Senate. Good job.